bikes and things

I woke this morning to a phone call from my Dad letting me know that his mum / my Granny had passed away. I was kind of expecting the news soon and knowing that Dad doesn’t generally call me at 6.45am that it was going to be about that. To be honest it hadn’t affected me at first and carried on with my day feeling slightly sad but not sure how to react. My first instinct was to head to my computer and hunt around for some old photos of when we were all last together. I found this corker from Dad’s 60th in 2008 when Granny was in a much better state of health. The photo shows me, Aunty Liz, Dad (with crazy hair), Granny and my sister Liz. Good times!

I’ve been thinking about it all day and kept referring to these photos. The last time I saw her was when she was recently ill with pneumonia in Weston-Super-Mare hospital – I popped in after smashing myself up on the trails. I guess I was there to say goodbye really but it really was a horrific experience for her and for her loved ones to observe her in such a fragile state. I still remember her eyes completely lighting up when I said I’d been to Wales mountain biking! Originally from Pontypridd she met my Granddad in Colerne during a posting in the war. We only found the latter out when we were together at Dad’s 60th – this generation didn’t seem to spill the beans as much really and just got the fuck on with things. It just so happened that we were looking at Colerne from the view out the back of the Quarrymans which sparked off a fascinating story of how they met. A sad day.

And one last photo to remember her by.

There was a saying I heard once that went something a along the lines of..

Surround yourself with the work of others rather than your own

Now I’ve no idea who said that and when but it seemed like a good idea. There’s no point in looking at your own work really. Best to inspire yourself with someones else’s. So on the wall above our desk at home we’ve been collecting a series of prints, posters and photos to go on the wall. We had a bit of a re-arrange at the weekend to squeeze more in and allow for others that are on their way from some print swaps I’ve done. It’s looking good for now though.

Hanging.

The final result.

A simple but effective flow chart from Orange.

Great to have a quick walk with Dallas the Labradoodle from The Gowlett. Been meaning to take him for a stroll for a while now. He seemed to have a great time chasing round the park with no real concern for anything except smells, peeing on trees and the occasional stick.

Managed to get a second quick ride in this Sunday, again with the dog in Cambridge along the same Roman road as the day before. Has a superb carvery lunch before so felt the need to burn some of it off. This time I took the Brompton for a bit of fun and gave snoopy a good run out. I think it knackered him out poor thing. Took a proper camera this time and was treated to a beautiful afternoon of sunshine.

And here’s snoopy running along smiling.

They say you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone which if the last three or so weeks is anything to go by is entirely true. After throughly smashing myself up on the mountainbike I’ve been off the bike trying to sort my back and neck out. Unfortunately this involved no cycling (or any other exercise) whatsoever for that duration which has been driving me crazy. Getting the bus to work has been a pain at best especially after I was starting to get quite fit commuting and riding at the weekends. My social media use saw a dramatic uptick in use which is no good thing. Bored on the bus and refreshing Twitter and Instagram constantly and taking pics of anything vaguely interesting seemed to be a regular occurrence.

After a week and a bit of pain it was fairly clear that it wasn’t going to clear up with the usual bath-ibuprofen-rest trick. Off to the osteopath we went and after three sessions I’ve finally got full movement back. I no longer walk like a stiff old man who can’t look around without moving his body. Having never been to an osteopath before it was a fairly interesting experience, especially having my back cracked into place. The first time involved an enormous yelp of pain and a loud expletive. After that things seemed to get better and I was finally allowed back on my bike this weekend.

I started off with the Brompton on the way to work on Friday and then added the hipster riser bars to the fixed on Sat before heading up to Cambridge to see Emma’s mum.

I quickly grabbed snoopy when we arrived and headed out to a local route I know. It turns out to be an ancient Roman road so we did that for a bit, explored, took some photos and came back. Not a fast paced ride, not crazy but so so good to be spinning the legs on two wheels again.

Back from Cambridge this evening to a wonderful view of The Shard. Sunlight peeping through the gaps in the top too. Lovely stuff.

And a 100% crop of the sunlight through the metal and glass.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Manufactured Landscapes film by Ed Burtynsky at the Tate Modern this week with Daniel. I hadn’t seen it before so it was great to see it properly on a decent screen. The opening shot is just so infinite and sets the scale for what is about to be shown in the rest of the film. The work is incredibly well shot and edited and the commentary is just about right. Plenty of silence to think about your thoughts between sections. It’s kind of harrowing but also beautiful at the same time which is confusing as hell. The way some of the prints are represented by a sharp detail on an individual which then pans out to reveal the sheer scale of the image really does sell the intensity of the work.

Whilst I enjoyed all of the work this image jumped out at me. The small 500px version below doesn’t really do it justice. Really looking forward to seeing the prints up close at the Photographers Gallery.

Image © Ed Burtynysky – Rock of Ages # 7, Active Section, E.L. Smith Quarry, Barre, Vermont, 1991.

The Q&A with him after was incredibly revealing. He talked about the way he had become an environmental campaigner rather than a photographer. There were also some great questions about the issue of making a difficult subject intensely beautiful and whether it detracted from the intended impact of the image. The other question was to do with the potential limited audience of his work through essentially discussing these issues with those who already are aware of them and how he intended to gain a wider audience. His answers were in depth and to the point but also well elaborated. Seems like a super intelligent chap.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Image © Ed Burtynysky – Manufacturing #10A and 10B, Cankun Factory, Xiamen City, 2005.

Impressive sense of scale from this view from Rotherhithe.

Image © Rob Telford

Our second weekend looking after Gina for Ray and Valentina as they headed to Wales for a wedding. We were a little nervous after she turned our lives upside down for four days the last time but said yes anyway. Amazingly she was far better this time and we had a great time. Lots of walks, lots of chasing and barking at anything that moves and also lots of playing with oversized sticks. I think I bored everyone to death with Instagram pics of her all weekend but I got a few more with the proper camera.

Looking forward to having her stay again.